The buildings within the ecological park stood quietly.
From the outside, it resembled an unassuming natural research facility, but upon entering, the space rapidly transformed.
The walls were constructed of a sensory material; as Silas entered, the surface, initially mimicking rock textures, gradually faded, revealing deep-space-like structural layers.
This was Heinrich's true research core.
Never to be revealed to the public in fifty years.
A transparent force field floated in the center of the hall.
It appeared empty, yet a subtle spatial distortion emanated from it.
Heinrich stood before the force field.
He turned around.
He looked only about twenty years old, a result of his recent "microscopic refresh."
But his eyes still carried the calm and weariness of long hours of research.
"You've come, Silas."
Silas approached.
"You said you had the answer."
Heinrich was silent for a few seconds.
"Not the answer."
"Just closer to the essence of the problem."
Heinrich raised his hand, gesturing to Alaric beside him.
Alaric began his demonstration.
Numerous models unfolded in the air.
Microscopic structures, high-dimensional projections, and constantly shifting particle trajectories.
“For the past fifty years, our research team has been working on two things.”
“The microscopic.”
“And high-dimensional spacetime.”
He continued:
“We’ve made many breakthroughs at the molecular, atomic, and quantum scales.”
“At the same time, we’ve also built several high-dimensional space simulation models.”
“But what truly changed everything was the discovery six weeks later.” Silas looked at the data.
He knew this referred to—the research after Alea’s disappearance.
Heinrich’s tone slowed.
“We’ve discovered something.”
The force field in the center of the hall began to fluctuate slightly.
It was as if some almost unobservable structure was emerging.
Heinrich said:
“It’s not a known particle.”
“Neither is a virtual particle.”
“It can’t even be fully called a ‘particle.’”
He paused.
“But it can become any particle.” Silas looked at him.
Heinrich continued:
“We call it—the superparticle. Or, the primordial particle.”
“Or—the ultimate particle. I prefer to call it the primordial particle.”
The model in the air changed rapidly.
The structures of all known particles were continuously unified.
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Ultimately, it converged to an extremely simple mathematical structure.
“This is the structure that simulates its existence. This is not its actual existence structure.”
Heinrich said:
“It does not exist in any spacetime.”
“You could say it exists in all spacetime.”
“It does not belong to any known physical system.”
“But it is the possible starting point for all physical systems.” Silas fell silent.
Heinrich continued to explain:
“We cannot create it.”
“We can only make it appear briefly through the structure of dark matter, combined with special high-dimensional perturbations.”
“Like—traction.” The hall fell silent again.
Then, Heinrich stated the most crucial point:
“The primordial particle has an irreversible property.”
“Once it collapses into any physical particle, it can never return to its original state.”
Heinrich closed some data.
He retrieved records from fifty years ago.
In the image, Alea stands in the experimental area.
The next second.
The space vanishes.
No energy burst.
No system anomaly.
Only a momentary structural collapse.
Heinrich says:
"We later confirmed."
"When Alea disappeared, the primordial particle briefly appeared."
Silas asks:
"Where did she go?"
Heinrich shakes his head.
"I don't know."
"But one thing is certain."
"She still exists."
His tone is very certain.
"The primordial particle doesn't destroy matter."
"It only changes the state of matter." The hall falls silent again.
This is the closest they've come to an answer in fifty years.
But it's still not an answer.
Heinrich walks to the other side of the experimental area.
There, a microscopic model of the human body is displayed.
The structures of cells, DNA, and proteins are fully presented.
"Eight years ago, I almost died in the quantum immortality experiment."
"After that, I completely abandoned that path."
He looks at Silas.
"Consciousness replication is not immortality."
"That's just replication." Heinrich continued:
"True immortality can only come from matter itself."
He explained his research logic:
If we could completely observe the human body's metabolism and aging process at the molecular and atomic level,
we could build a complete model.
Aging, in essence, is structural disorder.
That is—entropy increase.
Through microscopic repair technology, the human body can be restored to its optimal structural state.
Fifty years ago.
Heinrich successfully restored his body to the state of a fifty-year-old.
The technology was subsequently continuously improved.
Now, he can maintain a stable refresh.
But it is still extremely costly.
It requires a large amount of equipment and resources.
In New Kyoto in 2114.
Heinrich finally opened the human microscopic refresh technology to the public.
But it wasn't free.
Because the equipment was still scarce.
The resource cost was extremely high.
At the same time—
The Hub's quantum immortality technology was also fully mature.
Two paths to immortality emerged for humanity:
Physical immortality. Maintaining the real body requires continuous maintenance.
Quantum Immortality
Upload consciousness, enter the virtual world.
For the first time, humanity truly has a choice.
The old city of New Kyoto.
The bar, almost entirely constructed of natural wood, still exists.
Time seems unchanged here.
Silas pushes open the door and enters.
The familiar scent of wood and alcohol mingles.
In the corner of the bar.
Eli sits there.
He didn't choose immortality.
White hair now covers his forehead.
His skin bears the real marks of aging.
"You're still twenty-five," Eli says with a smile.
Silas sits down.
No reply.
After a moment, he says:
"Heinrich found the primordial particle."
Eli's hand pauses slightly.
Eli is silent for a long time.
Then he whispers:
"Perhaps—"
"We are all just the result of a collapse."
The bar falls silent again.
The wooden walls absorb most of the sound, leaving only the soft clinking of ice cubes in glasses.
Silas watched the slowly swirling liquid in his glass, as if contemplating some distant timescale.
After a moment, he spoke:
"Perhaps—"
"We are not the result of collapse." Eli raised his head slightly.
Silas continued:
"Perhaps billions of years ago, the origin of the universe itself was a collapse."
"The so-called Big Bang singularity might just be the result of some kind of 'primordial particle' entering the physical universe." Eli remained silent.
Silas's tone remained calm:
"We are merely the product of over ten billion years of evolution after that collapse."
"From stars to elements, from elements to molecules, from molecules to life."
He gently tapped his glass.
"Humans are nothing more than composed of the most ordinary particles."
"Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen."
"Extremely ordinary."
"Even going to the oxygen-depleted plateau is uncomfortable, let alone leaving Earth." Eli slowly exhaled.
"Yes."
"A body composed of C, H, O."
"Too fragile."
He looked out the window at New Kyoto.
City lights flowed in the distance, like some kind of artificial galaxy.
“Human science and technology have been constantly breaking through.”
“From steam to quantum.”
“From the ground to orbit.”
“But the essence hasn’t changed.” Eli shook his head slightly:
“We are still carbon-based life.”
“Still limited by physics.”
“Still unable to truly leave the solar system.”
He paused.
His voice lowered.
“Not to mention—contact with higher dimensions.”
Silas didn’t respond.
Eli looked at him.
A slow, thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.
“Perhaps—”
“It will change all of this.” Silas looked up.
Eli continued:
“That primordial particle.”
“If it truly exists beyond all spacetime.”
“If it truly is the source of matter.”
“Then perhaps it’s not just a physical phenomenon.”
“But a—channel.” The bar fell silent again.
Like some uncomprehended possibility, slowly taking shape.
Outside the window, the lights of New Kyoto remained steady.
And further away—
The universe remained silent.
